Alec Baldwin Saved By Galaga

If you rub Galaga on your teeth, they get numb. Try it at home!

The New York Post describes Christopher Kennedy Lawford's new book, Moments of Clarity, as a compilation of personal testimonies of addiction. One such testimonial comes courtesy of actor Alec Baldwin, who apparently found one of those moments of clarity while seeing the face of an arcade operator after a night of hard partying:

Baldwin would end the night at an arcade warehouse playing "Galaga."
"I would play video games from, like, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., and I would wind down. Then I'd go home and go to bed," Baldwin writes.
"This was the only way I could go 'beta' and go into that state I needed to be, where I could calm down and take my mind off everything. I didn't want to see anybody, talk to anybody, deal with anybody."
A "moment of clarity" came when he saw pity in the face of Julian, the person who ran the parlor.
"I was doing a show then ['Knots Landing'], making tens of thousands of dollars a week, which was part of the problem," he writes.
"Julian would put the key in the lock and open the door, and he would just kind of look at me like, 'Wow, I'm glad I'm not you.' "
Baldwin agreed. "You got no idea, Julian. Julian, I need you. I need you to get that key and open the f- - -ing door and let me in. I got to play 'Galaga.' "

I've never said this publicly before, but Galaga helped me beat addiciton, as well, totally curing me of my Galaxian jones. Of course, the cure ended up being way more addictive than the sickness itself. It wasn't until I moved on to Pole Position that I was able to properly sort my life out.